If your child is minimally verbal or non-speaking, there's a question that almost nobody in the system will ask — and it might be the most important one of all. Could it be apraxia?

In this episode, we speaks with New York-based speech-language pathologist Alonna Bondar, who has spent 25 years specialising in childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) — a motor planning disorder that research suggests may affect up to two thirds of autistic children, yet remains almost entirely absent from mainstream speech therapy practice, particularly in the UK.

Alonna breaks down what apraxia actually is, why it's so routinely missed, and why years of traditional language-based therapy can fail children who need motor speech intervention instead. She also explains the difference between approaches like PROMPT, DTTC, and the REST programme, how to find the right therapist, what parents can do at home, and why AAC should never be a last resort.

If your child has ever seemed to "pop out" a word or phrase and then never said it again, this episode is essential listening.

Topics covered:

• What childhood apraxia of speech is and how it differs from language delay
• Why autistic children are excluded from most CAS research — and what that means for diagnosis
• "Ghost words" and gestalt language processing
• Why telling a child to "just say it" can cause more harm than good
• PROMPT, DTTC, REST — what they are and which children they suit
• Why oral motor tools like whistles and vibrating devices won't help
• The state of apraxia awareness in the UK vs the US
• How to access Alonna's consultations, courses, and parent coaching

What if the 'autism' label was getting in the way of actually helping your child?

In this episode, Joe and Kayleigh sit down with Lara Barnes, founder of Brain Development UK, who spent years navigating her son Archie's developmental challenges before discovering a root-cause approach that changed everything.

Lara walks us through her son's early signs — a back-to-back birth, a weak latch, skipped crawling milestones, repetitive ear infections, delayed speech, and sensory overwhelm — and how she was eventually led to the work of Dr. Robert Melillo and the science of primitive reflex integration. What followed was a remarkable journey: monthly trips to Barcelona, a TENS machine, vibration therapy, dietary overhaul, photobiomodulation, and a child who began speaking, playing with Lego, and thriving in ways the conventional system had written off as unlikely.

In a conversation that covers an extraordinary amount of ground, Lara explains the pyramid of learning, why retained primitive reflexes hold children in a lower level of brain function, how the gut and brain are inseparable in this work, and why mould exposure, fluoride, processed food, and even cereal could be quietly undermining your child's development.

We also get into photobiomodulation and why buying a laser without guidance could make things worse. Plus — the vibration plate tip that helped a mum transform her child's anxiety in two weeks for £15.

Resources mentioned:

• braindevelopment.co.uk
• Disconnected Kids by Dr. Robert Melillo
• ION gut supplement
• Citri Drops nasal spray
• Vicky Finlayson / Happy Healthy Unicorn

Del Bigtree is an Emmy award winning producer.

Today he's the founder of The Highwire and Informed Consent Action Network.

He was also Communications Director for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2024 Presidential Campaign.

Then after all that, in 2026, he graciously agreed to come on our pokey little podcast.

And what an honour it was.

We discuss:

• The truth about disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield.
• His superb documentary, An Inconvenient Study
• America's sick kids (the sickest in the industrialised world)
• How the NHS could easily prove if vaccines are safe (or not)
• That the COVID vaccine is the most studied vaccine ever